Volvo registered 1,721 new heavy goods vehicles in Portugal in the first nine months of 2026, 125.9 percent more than the 762 it registered a year earlier, according to the monthly registration tables published by ACAP, the Portuguese automotive association, from tax authority (AT) records. That gave the Swedish brand 30.1 percent of a market that grew 34.1 percent to 5,713 vehicles, up from 17.9 percent in January to September 2025. Its total is almost exactly twice that of the runner-up, Mercedes-Benz, with 862.
September did much of the work. Volvo registered 434 of the 833 heavy goods vehicles plated that month, 52.1 percent, against 216 and 28.5 percent in September 2025. The rest of the market moved the other way: all other brands together registered 399 heavy goods vehicles in September, 26 percent fewer than the 541 of a year earlier, with Mercedes-Benz down to 77 from 185 and Iveco to 45 from 105. Volvo was already ahead before September, with 26.4 percent of registrations in January to August (1,287 of 4,880) against 15.6 percent a year before. Over the nine months, Volvo’s 959 additional registrations account for about two-thirds of the market’s increase of 1,452 vehicles (NorthSouth HQ calculations from ACAP’s tables).
The ranking
| Brand | Jan–Sep 2026 | Jan–Sep 2025 | Change | Share 2026 | Share 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Volvo | 1,721 | 762 | +125.9% | 30.1% | 17.9% |
| Mercedes-Benz | 862 | 577 | +49.4% | 15.1% | 13.5% |
| MAN | 642 | 777 | −17.4% | 11.2% | 18.2% |
| Scania | 592 | 436 | +35.8% | 10.4% | 10.2% |
| Iveco | 545 | 511 | +6.7% | 9.5% | 12.0% |
| Renault | 483 | 507 | −4.7% | 8.5% | 11.9% |
| DAF | 471 | 322 | +46.3% | 8.2% | 7.6% |
| All brands | 5,713 | 4,261 | +34.1% | 100% | 100% |
New heavy goods vehicle (“pesados de mercadorias”) registrations in Portugal by brand. Source: ACAP, “Matrículas de Veículos Automóveis por Marca”, September 2026 (origin: AT).
A year ago the order was different. MAN led January to September 2025 with 777 registrations, 15 more than Volvo; this year it registered 642, 17.4 percent fewer. Mercedes-Benz, DAF and Scania grew faster than the market, Iveco grew 6.7 percent and Renault fell 4.7 percent. Transportes & Negócios, the Portuguese transport trade title, reported Volvo’s position on 6 October under the headline “Volvo com 30% do mercado de camiões”.
Volvo Group and Scania: nearly half the market
Volvo trucks are made by the Volvo Group, which is headquartered in Gothenburg and also lists Renault Trucks among its brands. Together, Volvo and Renault took 2,204 registrations, 38.6 percent of the heavy goods market in January to September, against 29.8 percent a year earlier. Volvo and Scania, the two truck makers headquartered in Sweden, account for 2,313 vehicles, or 40.5 percent; Scania, based in Södertälje, is owned by Germany’s Traton group, which also owns MAN. Taken together, the three brands registered 2,796 heavy goods vehicles, 48.9 percent of the market, up from 40.0 percent in January to September 2025 (NorthSouth HQ calculations).
Buses and coaches are a different market. Of the 1,168 heavy passenger vehicles registered in the nine months, 32.4 percent more than a year earlier, Yutong supplied 310, or 26.5 percent. ACAP lists Volvo and Scania bus chassis separately by bodybuilder; summed, Volvo-chassis vehicles come to 57 (40 bodied by Irizar, 14 by Atomic and 3 listed under Volvo alone) and Scania-chassis vehicles to 76 (55 Atomic, 19 Irizar, 2 Higer). Portugal also has a part in Volvo Buses’ coach range: the Volvo B13R UNVI XL is bodied in Porto by the coachbuilder UNVI.
Still a diesel market
ACAP’s breakdown by energy type shows that 5,629 of the 5,713 heavy goods vehicles registered in January to September, 98.5 percent, run on diesel. Battery-electric trucks numbered 62, or 1.1 percent, and the remaining 22 run on natural gas, alone or with diesel. All 434 Volvo heavy vehicles registered in September were diesel, according to ACAP’s table by brand and energy type.
The tables do not say who bought the trucks, or why September was so strong. A registration is recorded when a vehicle is first plated, not when it is ordered. NorthSouth HQ did not find a published explanation of the September figure from Volvo or its Portuguese distributor.
A reorganised dealer network
Separately, Volvo’s truck and bus network in Portugal was reorganised over the summer. In July, Porto-based Grupo Nors, the former Auto Sueco, notified Portugal’s competition authority that it was taking exclusive control, through Nors VT Trucks and Buses Portugal, of Ascendum Camiões, a Volvo truck dealer it had controlled jointly with Ernesto Vieira & Filhos, ECO reported on 9 July. After the authority’s non-opposition decision, ECO reported on 6 August that Nors Trucks and Buses Portugal VT, which distributes and services Volvo trucks and buses in Portugal, would take over the Volvo truck and bus operation in the Centro region, integrating about 80 employees. According to ECO, trucks and buses account for 55.5 percent of Nors’s sales. Human Resources Portugal reported on 9 July that the Nors truck and bus unit had a new CEO.
Individual fleet orders surface only case by case. On 30 June and 1 July, Grande Consumo, Correio do Minho and Transportes & Negócios reported that the Braga transport group Torrestir was adding new Volvo FH 460 I-Save Aero trucks to its fleet; on 16 July Portugal Global, the website of the trade and investment agency AICEP, carried an item headlined “Torrestir reforça operação internacional e de longo curso” (Torrestir strengthens its international and long-haul operation).
What to watch
Volvo Group publishes its third-quarter report on 23 October. In the second quarter, its truck order intake rose 33 percent to 63,412 vehicles, as NorthSouth HQ reported in July. In Portugal, ACAP’s next monthly tables will show whether September was a one-month peak or a new level: before it, Volvo’s share for the year stood at 26.4 percent; after it, 30.1 percent. Nordic companies already active in Portugal are listed in the NorthSouth HQ directory of Nordic companies in Portugal.